


The Sixth Time

by Gianeya



Category: Dishonored (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Character Study slowly turning into PWP, Corvo with tattoos, Geoff has a tattoo!kink, M/M, PWP, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-17
Updated: 2015-12-17
Packaged: 2018-05-07 05:54:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5445692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gianeya/pseuds/Gianeya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After all Geoff was right then – his sixth time actually turned out to be the worst. But he was glad that it happened this way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sixth Time

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Шестой раз](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5101556) by [Gianeya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gianeya/pseuds/Gianeya). 



> Inspired by [the official concept-art for the game, where Corvo has tattooed hands](http://i.imgur.com/kCdswdw.png) and partly by [this picture](http://i.imgur.com/xwbLmLP.jpg) ([source](http://hearditbothways.tumblr.com/post/107252319795/after-a-long-absence-from-posting-i-kind-of)).
> 
> English is (apparently!) not my native language. Please, excuse me for any possible grammar and punctuational mistakes.

Geoff was eighteen when it had happened for the first time.

He'd just had a quarrel with his parents, and the very next morning he asked his captain to include him in the squad accompanying the Emperor to Tyvia. Geoff was young and preferred to run to the cold northern island instead of marrying a childhood friend because of their parents’ decision.

The Emperor guards happened to be stationed in the common barracks of the Tyvian City Watch. They had several shifts, so Geoff got enough free time to sometimes visit a tavern in the Dabokva harbor. It was there that he met Igor.

They spoke for the first time after Geoff helped him stop a sudden fight in the tavern. They almost immediately found out that they slept in the same barrack, just in the different ends of it. Geoff only laughed, because the main reason he went to drink this far away was that it was almost impossible to meet anyone familiar here. And look how it turned out! But after that night he really quickly became friends with Igor, and now almost every evening they spent together in that same tavern.

Geoff enjoyed this unexpected friendship to the utmost extent. Igor was charming and never boring, he enthusiastically took Geoff sightseeing, always made him taste strange local meals and laughed so infectiously that Geoff could never hold back his smile.

But they would probably stay only good friends, if not for the chance. Igor once again got into the bar fight and got his shirt ripped open. After the fight he simply stood there wiping the sweat off his neck with a satisfied laugh, but transfixed Geoff could only stare at a tattoo on his chest: an eagle carrying some small animal in its claws. Only sudden silence tore him from this entrancement. He slowly rose his head, met Igor’s gaze and suddenly realized that he had totally given himself away – because Igor was smirking knowingly.

Geoff hardly remembered what happened next; as far as he could tell, Igor demanded a key for a room from the innkeeper, then took a jar of vine in one hand, Geoff’s arm in the other and dragged him upstairs. And then everything became hot, a bit painful and totally perfect.

In the morning Geoff didn’t have enough time to question his own morals: their guarding shift started at dawn. So he quickly woke Igor up and they both ran off to their appointed places.For the whole day after that Geoff diligently tried not to think about previous night, but in the evening he caught himself halfway to the harbor. He saw Igor right from the doorstep; he sat at the table alone with a brandy bottle for company and raised his head only when Geoff stood right at his table. For almost a minute they stared at each other and then Igor silently walked to the innkeeper. There was no talking after that. 

However later they also didn’t have enough time for profound conversations. The Emperor was going to return back to Dunwall next week, but Geoff refused to think about it; he had enough interesting things to do without this depressing thoughts. He greedily absorbed the previously unknown pleasures and didn’t intend to come back to reality in the near future.

Unfortunately, his desires were not the most significant in this situation.

Two days before the Emperor’s departure they were walking along a narrow dark street in the harbor district, when four people appeared from a shadowy alley; their leader’s smile was very unpleasant.

“Long time no see, Igoryok. What, you’ve found yourself a new entertainment and forgot about your old friends?”

Geoff felt Igor tense; meanwhile the man continued, “What, do you think, the friends of this Dunwall boy would say if they found out about your nightly escapades? Gristol is not Tyvia, and even here you both could’ve gotten fired – or possibly even something uglier, if his comrades would’ve known before his chief officer. You remember how it ended for your previous– friend, right? Or should I remind you? I seem to recall that you’ve run away too fast then.” While their leader spoke, three remaining thugs without any hurry surrounded Geoff and Igor.

“What will you choose, Dunwall boy? Pay for you pleasure here and with us or try and discover, how your chief will react, when he discovers that you’ve fucked a man?”

Geoff felt cold shiver run down his spine. No need to try; he knew perfectly well what his father would tell, if he caught such rumors: best case, he would disown Geoff; worst case, he’d inform Abbey that his son violated the Sixth Stricture. Outsider’s eyes, what was he thinking?! Oh, stupid question. Apparently his was thinking with his other head. And if didn’t come up with some immediate plan to deal with this, his reputation would turn up in the same place this other head had been to.

Absorbed in these unhappy thoughts, Geoff almost forgot about Igor, but suddenly he forcefully pushed Geoff with a shoulder and rushed away down the street. And in that short moment of contact Geoff somehow managed to jerk his pistol – _why was he so stupid to leave his own in the barracks today?!_ – from his waistband holster and quickly pointed it at the leader. The man’s smirk turned even nastier and he made a step forward. The shot rang so loudly that for a moment Geoff felt deaf. Other three, who were deciding whether to run after Igor or stay here, froze. 

Geoff cocked the trigger and spoke with as much confidence, as he could muster, “I’ve got only one bullet left, so one of you will certainly die. Would you risk it?”

They didn’t.

Geoff dropped the pistol in the same street. Only now he realized that killing a civilian would be even a more inexorable end to his career than sodomy itself, and felt horror. The only hope was that the leader was bluffing and didn’t really know who Geoff was or where to find his captain.

The last two days before departure Geoff took pains to steer clear both of the barracks and the tavern and asked for additional daily duties. He also didn’t try to find Igor; on one hand, he wanted to look the person, who left him with those bastards, in the eye, but on the other hand, Geoff was too afraid that in this case he wouldn’t be able to conceal the truth.

When the ship ladder was pulled on board, Geoff finally exhaled with relief. He was lucky after all. And that was the moment he decided to never think about this story again.

***

For the second time it happened only eight years later, when Geoff has just been made an officer and his whole family was proud with him, because it was very hard to receive such a rank at twenty six.

It was his first patrol near the Golden Cat. He’d just finished giving instructions to his squad and was walking towards the guardhouse when he heard some noise from the side alley. He came closer and was going to hail the pair necking there, when suddenly he noticed the tattoos. That man was tightly pressing the girl to himself, and his arms were fully covered with innumerable colorful designs.

In a couple of seconds Geoff recovered and bellowed loudly that it wasn’t a brothel here. The man reluctantly let the girl go from his paws and they quickly fixed their clothes, muttered some excuses and wandered together somewhere in the direction of Clavering Boulevard.

But Geoff himself stated in the same alley for about five more minutes, trying to comprehend the fact that for one short, almost imperceptible moment he wanted to become that girl. He rather quickly realized that the reason was no the man himself, but his tattoos. But even this was a tad bit too much of a revelation. After all he spent last eight years avoiding any thoughts about Tyvia – and about the picture on Igor’s chest too.

Finally Geoff shook his head and decided to simply accept the fact that he liked tattoos. He didn’t really want to run and kiss this man with inked arms, right? So there was no reason to panic.

With this thought Geoff composed himself, left the side alley and started back towards the guardhouse. He needed to write a report for the Guard Captain about yesterday patrol and had no time for idle thoughts.

***

Third and fourth cases only made Geoff stronger believe in his own conclusions. He still marveled at tattoos but the desire to kiss their owners was totally absent; neither the impudent street urchin, who had some kind of a feathered pattern on his cheek, nor the prisoner, who preferred to sit in his cell without a shirt, showing everyone his excessive chest and back tattoos. 

At thirty two Geoff hasn’t considered this a problem for a long time already. And then fate must’ve ganged up with the Outsider himself and decided to make Geoff an unexpected present.

***

That boy almost immediately caught Geoff’s interest. He was barely twenty – quite a green youth – but it was obvious that he wanted to learn. Geoff was in good standing with the Guard Captain, so it was easy to ask him to assign the novice into Geoff’s squad.

The boy was actually good; he didn’t avoid Coldridge duties, didn’t look at the courtesans while on patrols around the Golden Cat and wasn’t afraid to ask questions. Geoff was going to write a request asking to enroll the novice to his squad permanently, when one day he saw a tattoo on his arm: a grapevine winding around his wrist.

It was like an epiphany; Geoff finally realized that all these years he had been skillfully and stubbornly lying to himself. That small bright picture on the boy’s arm seemed to open his eyes to the past he had been running from: on Tyvia he slept with Igor not because of his tattoo – but simply because he liked Igor – liked a man. Yes, the tattoo was a trigger, but it was not the main reason.

And right now the story could repeat itself, because Geoff already liked this boy a bit too much.

At last he chose, what to write in a report for the Guard Captain; he sincerely praised the novice’s achievements, noted his ambition for further learning and recommended to transfer him to Sanders’ squad, which patrolled Wrenhaven outside of Dunwall.

Geoff was a bit ashamed, but he didn’t intend to repeat mistakes of his youth.

***

The sixth time turned out to be the most terrible.

Before the Empress sent her Lord Protector into a journey across the Islands in a search for the plague cure, Geoff almost never have met him. And he was not too happy, when he was assigned as Corvo’s companion: his parents and his older sister with her husband and daughter were staying in the city; but he could not oppose the Empress’ direct order. It was because of these reasons that Geoff spent the first day of their journey with a terrible mood, and he was sure that nothing could be worse.

Oh, how mistaken he was.

That evening Corvo came to the dinner without his gloves. Because of the dim lights in the canteen it took Geoff some time to realize why his hands seemed so dark. Frowning he examined them intently, until Corvo noticed his gaze and silently raised his arms in front of his chest. His hands from the wrists down to the fingertips were covered in an intricate pattern of interlacing dark blue lines.

A loud cry rang out from the deck; Geoff startled form his stupor and, mumbling something among the lines of “I’ll go and check what happened”, quickly left the canteen. But even while he was sending two sailors, who had, with some almost preternatural ability, already found some whisky and had been trying to create a small fire near the whale oil tank, to the detention room, he couldn’t stop thinking about something else entirely.

_The Empress of course wouldn’t have sent her Lord Protector away for long. That means two – worst case three – weeks. What could happen in three weeks? We both have our own duties, which mean that we won’t cross path a lot; possibly we’ll meet only in canteen._

“Captain Curnow, is everything alright?” An anxious question sounded from behind his back, and the hand covered in blue interwoven ornament fell onto his shoulder. “I wanted to offer some help, but now I see you’ve already taken care of everything.”

_By the Void! I can already sense that these three weeks will be endless–_

***

Even Geoff himself couldn’t comprehend how he stayed sane during this endless year. In the last weeks the only thing holding him back from trying to kiss Corvo was the gossips about Lord Protector and Empress having a love affair.

When their boat entered the waterlock, Geoff exhaled with relief. Finally. Finally he will be able to leave behind any thoughts about sometimes curious, sometimes anxious and – rarely – even a bit teasing gazes; about long conversations over a cup of tea with whiskey in the evenings and about silent meetings on the bow of the ship in the dawn. The first time they met there Corvo raised his eyebrows in apparent surprise, but stayed silent; next time he simply moved aside and allowed Geoff to stand near, and then it became some sort of a daily ritual for them.

And he will be able to forget about wide hands with their strange inky designs. Over these months Geoff had seen Corvo’s tattoos more than once and seemed to memorize every single line.

_Now everything will return to normal._

***

Sometimes Geoff felt like the last six month of his life were some kind of a never ending nightmare.

After Corvo Attano killed the Empress, Emily Caldwin disappeared and Hiram Burrows became the Regent, the City Watch responsibilities and duties redoubled. And Geoff, as the Guard Captain, had to be everywhere at once, so he didn’t even have time to visit his parents’ and sister’s graves. After their death he had only his niece Callista. But even she was lost somewhere in the city and only sent him occasional postcards, which lessened his concerns for a short time. 

On the positive side, he also didn’t have enough time for idle thoughts and for this he could actually thank the Regent. By the end of the day Geoff usually was so exhausted that, after coming home, he barely reached his bed and fell asleep at once; so he didn’t have to diligently fend off any memories about warm smiles of the Empress’ killer.

But no matter what the Watch was doing, situation in Dunwall was only getting worse: more rats appeared every day, weepers showed up in the wealthy districts, Overseers did everything they wanted – and Lord Regent turned a blind eye to all of this.

But after Corvo escaped Coldridge, Geoff refused to further tolerate it. He sent Campbell a note with a persistent request of a meeting. He was ready for a refusal, but didn’t intend to give up after the first try. That’s why he was so surprised, when in the answering letter Campbell agreed to meet him the same night.

But from the very beginning of their talk Geoff realized that he would not find any understanding here. When Campbell offered his vine, he was ready to lie about some urgent business, but he wasn’t able to. Sharp sting in his neck – and he couldn’t even raise his hand to check what it was.

He didn’t remember what happened next. Or, rather, he told everybody that he didn’t remember. After all he must’ve simply dreamed about a stranger with such familiar blue swirling tattoos on his hands, who threw him over the shoulder, sneaked out of the window to the parapet of the Overseer’s Office and then carefully placed Geoff into the street dumpster.

***

Geoff hesitatingly froze in front of the door with his fist held high, but after a couple second he overcame his anxiety and finally knocked.

“Come in.” The voice sounded a tad bit strange and, when Geoff opened the door, he immediately realized why: Corvo was standing there, wearing only his shirt, and it’s right sleeve was cut and covered in blood.

“I had some things to do in the city,” Corvo calmly answered the unasked question. “You wanted to talk, captain?”

“I–” Geoff painfully tore his eyes away from Corvo’s hands and tried to gather his thoughts. His gaze was quickly darting across the room without pausing on anything: a sword on the table, a coat roughly thrown over the chair, a bed with dark blue linen still in disarray.

 _Why can’t you turn away for at least one minute?_ Geoff thought desperately.

As if hearing this anguished plea, Corvo walked to the table and delved into one of the drawers. Geoff exhaled with relief and said, “I wanted to ask you for a long time already. That night, when Campbell disappeared – that was you, right?” 

Half-turning back Corvo fleetingly smiled and nodded, “That was me. Callista asked me to prevent Campbell from killing you, and I decided it was the least I could do both for you and for her after all.”

“What? Killing?”

“You didn’t know? The vine he offered you was poisoned. Apparently you interfered with his and Burrows’ plans too much.”

“I–” Geoff was perplexed. He opened his mouth, trying to grasp that that night only miracle saved him from death. “I didn’t think, I simply wanted to– I don’t know, how to thank you for this, Corvo.”

“Help me bandage this graze, I wouldn’t want to stain another shirt,” with these words Corvo finally pulled the thing he was searching for from the drawer: a package with some bandages and Sokolov elixir.

“Yeah, sure,” Geoff obediently walked to the table and started opening the elixir with slightly trembling – he still hasn’t recovered from the news of his possible death – fingers. Something quietly rustled behind his back, but he didn’t pay it any attention. “Let’s treat the wound with elix–” any words stuck in his throat, when he turned around.

Corvo had taken off his shirt. And, looking on his naked torso, Geoff clearly than ever understood that he’d lost it. Blue patterns on Corvo’s hands, which Geoff already knew so well, went up to the middle of his forearms, but that was not all of it. Corvo’s right shoulder sprouted flowers: roses, sunflowers, something else that Geoff wasn’t able to recognize right now; the other shoulder was covered with a picture of swirling smoke tendrils with three skulls in their center; his neck was circled with some sharply spiked branches and in the center of his chest two ravens were fighting with their claws. Some tattoos were crossed by old scars, but they didn’t ruin the whole image.

“Captain?” Geoff’s voice was refusing to obey. “Captain Curnow, is everything alright? Geoff?”

He slowly raised his head and looked Corvo in the eyes, slightly afraid. Geoff had no idea what was showing on his face, but Corvo suddenly fell silent. He examined Geoff for one long, endless moment and then carefully took the not yet opened elixir from him, threw it somewhere on the bed and slowly pulled Geoff’s hand towards his chest.

A strangled half-moan, half-wheeze fell from Geoff’s lips. Like in a dream, he saw his own left hand also rising and sliding along the inky branches around Corvo’s throat. 

“Stop me,” Geoff whispered, because that moment he couldn’t even speak louder.

But Corvo simply shook his head and smiled, “If you want to, you will stop yourself. And if you don’t – I don’t see the reason to interrupt.”

It was physically impossible to stop after such words. Totally forgetting about the bandages Geoff grabbed Corvo’s shoulders with a desperate sob, yanked him forward, leaned towards his neck and – finally – touched the tattoo with his lips. The taste of skin was intoxicating; with almost feral greediness Geoff began to lick the inky lines, slowly drawing near the enticing hollow between Corvo’s collarbones. Somewhat distantly he noticed that Corvo started to push him somewhere. But it was beyond him to stop now, so he unquestioningly allowed Corvo to guide them wherever he wanted.

Meanwhile Corvo confidently started to rid Geoff of his clothes. Belt, uniform jacket and then also his shirt fell to the floor and Geoff, feeling their skin touch, moaned throatily into Corvo’s neck. Corvo sighed loudly, swallowed – and abruptly pushed Geoff onto the bed.

Something hard pressed against his back; without tearing his eyes away from Corvo Geoff found this thing – _that’s where the Sokolov elixir went!_ – and pushed it aside. Corvo leaned above him, put his hands onto Geoff’s thighs and pulled down his trousers together with his underwear and boots; tattoos on his chest and shoulders twisted with his every movement as if being alive: flower petals trembled, smoke swirled around skulls and ravens’ wings quivered.

“Captain, is this not your first time with a man?” A question pushed through the veil of desire in Geoff’s head.

“Not the first, no. But it was a long time ago,” was this hoarse faltering voice really his? Geoff hardly remembered, how he felt years ago with Igor, but with the few women he slept with since then he never felt such strong arousal – with slight pain in his temples, with fire under his skin, with stupid red circles swimming in his eyes.

“Then we won’t lose any time on any explanations,” with these word Corvo sat down on the bed to take off his own boots and trousers. And Geoff simply couldn’t hold back; he rose halfway, pushed Corvo’s hair aside with shaky fingers and once again kissed his neck, gathering tiny sweat droplets from his slightly roughened skin over the ink. But Corvo easily dodged his lips, turned around and whispered teasingly, “Not so fast, captain.”

And this drawn out ‘captain’ somehow knocked out all the remainig air from Geoff’s lungs. Still breathless and without complaint he allowed Corvo to move closer to the bedhead, and then, obeying his light touches, Geoff turned up sitting on his lap.

“Will you kiss me at least, or are my tattoos too distracting?” Geoff didn’t even have enough energy to resent Corvo for this mild taunt. His hands trembled, so he put them on Corvo’s shoulders and a bit awkwardly touched Corvo’s lips with his own. But the kiss quickly turned better; Corvo licked the corner of his mouth, lightly nipped his lower lip and, when Geoff finally sighed relaxing, slid his tongue inside his mouth. The kiss suddenly turned so hot and dirty that Geoff moaned again. By the Void, was he going to continue being a girl on her first date here? 

Breaking away from the other’s lips he forcefully pushed Corvo back first into his dark blue bedclothes. Corvo’s still slightly mocking gaze only spurred him more, and with low growl he bent forward and almost painfully bit Corvo’s left nipple – right near the wingtip of one of the ravens. 

Apparently, Corvo didn’t expect that, and Geoff heard his first moan that evening. Wanting to hold his advantage, but unable to tear away from the enticing inky lines Geoff proceeded to lay bites up across Corvo’s chest along the raven’s wing. He didn’t know if it was only his imagination or reality, but the skin seemed to taste differently over the tattoos. Once he reached the place where the raven’s wing touched the clavicle, Geoff couldn’t stop himself from leaving a hickey. But judging from another moan from Corvo, he wasn’t at all opposed to such treatment.

Yet while Geoff was distracted with bites and kisses, Corvo hadn’t wasted his time. The touch of slick fingers between his buttocks made Geoff startle and throw his head up, breaking away from the inked skin.

“What–”

“Elixir, captain. Sokolov’s invention sometimes can be useful in unexpected situations.”

“Please, don’t mention Sokolov right now.”

“As you wish, captain,” laughter in Corvo’s voice became unbearable. Geoff already wanted to bite his nipple once again, but Corvo chose that moment to push his fingers inside – and Geoff buried his face in his shoulder and cried almost soundlessly.

Corvo stretched him slowly, turning his wrist a bit with each movement and gliding his fingertips along the inner walls, and Geoff listened to his own fast breath and tried to make himself move. Allowing Corvo to do all the work would be, undoubtedly, pleasurable, but not too interesting. Thus Geoff gathered his thoughts, licked one of the inky thorns around Corvo’s neck and raised his head to find the elixir. Then he gathered some of the slippery red substance in his hand and, while trying not to get distracted with smooth thrusts of fingers inside himself, he stretched towards Corvo’c cock and ran his hand along it a couple of times. Corvo in return threw up his thighs and whispered, slightly breathless, “You’re rushing it, captain.”

“Yes, Outsider take you! Come on, Corvo, I’m not made of glass and I will not break because of some pain.”

“This sounded so trite right now.”

“I don’t care. Now, Corvo, you’re not made of iron too,” Geoff swept his hand along Corvo’s cock once again, smudging the drop of precome on the tip.

Finally Corvo also ran out of patience and almost rudely clawed along Geoff’s hip, forcing him to rise a bit and then slowly slide down his cock, which he was guiding in with his other hand. When Geoff was sitting on his lap, Corvo embraced his waist and tentatively pushed upward a little – and Geoff moved towards this movement with a muffled groan. 

And then everything turned into a meshed up ball of feelings and emotions: a little bit of pain that was washed away by pleasure almost immediately, scorhingly hot touch of Corvo’s hand on his cock, hoarse whisper, indistinguishable because of blood buzz in his ears – and dancing tattoos on Corvo’s skin. Geoff didn’t look away from them till the very end. Only when he was shuddering in climax, he allowed himself to close his eyes and fall forward, clasping his teeth on Corvo’s clavicle; and it seemed that this bite was all it took to throw Corvo over the edge too.

Later Geoff was lying prostate on Corvo’s chest and tried to catch his breath. Corvo lightly stroked him along the small of his back, and Geoff was feeling terribly lazy. Right now he didn’t want to remember Tyvia or think about how it could end this time. Geoff’s eyelids were inevitably slipping shut, and in the end he had time to think only about one thing: his sixth time actually turned out to be the worst. But he was glad that it happened this way.


End file.
